Víkingur Ólafsson has just completed his world tour with Bach’s Goldberg Variations (see Stage and Cinema‘s review) and is already releasing six new interpretations of the composer’s music, four of which he arranged himself. He recorded the piano arrangements of Bach’s sacred music in Reykjavík’s Harpa concert hall in January. Ólafsson states, “When I play Bach, I am reminded that historical eras in music are notions we superimpose on what is essentially a continuum: an unbroken thread linking us all, a running stream flowing through us – what the Germans, incidentally, call a Bach.” Continuum is Ólafsson’s personal Bach diary, a dialog with Bach’s music and an ongoing tribute to his artistry. This is the first installment of what will be an ongoing Bach diary for Ólafsson.
Continuum is released digitally and on vinyl, with a deluxe version available exclusively from the DG Store. The latter features a 180g crystal-clear vinyl disc; high-quality prints of the individual black-and-white covers produced for each track’s single release over the last few months; and an LP-format signed art card.
The gem-like recordings on Continuum reveal, once again, the profound affinity Ólafsson has with the music of Bach. Among them are four of his own arrangements of movements from different cantatas: the bass aria “Es ist vollbracht” from BWV 159 and the choruses “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” from BWV 21, “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” from BWV 12 and “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” from BWV 150.
The pianist has also recorded two arrangements by other composers. He is joined by his wife, Halla Oddný Magnúsdottir, in a four-hands version of the chorale prelude “Das alte Jahr vergangen ist”, BWV 614, created by the legendary Hungarian composer György Kurtág, and rounds off the EP with a reading of the sacred song “Komm, süßer Tod”, BWV 478, as arranged by Harold Bauer (1873-1951).
